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Dee man

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Everything posted by Dee man

  1. That was the Jones of old on show today. I know it's VFL, but he's still got the talent there and he's still a rung above a lot of our young players. Looking forward to him breaking the Melbourne games record on Grand Final day and coming in as the super sub in the final quarter to kick the matchwinning goal.
  2. Last year Weid was getting the best defender. This game, he could be getting the 4th or even 5th best defender. Speaking of which, if you're an opposition coach and you're trying to decide who Melbourne's most dangerous forward is, who on earth would you pick? On form, it's McDonald. On ability, it's Brown. On danger, it's Kozzie. On marking ability, it's Fritsch. And Weid has the potential to be the best of the lot...
  3. I reckon his game against the Giants was good without being great. He was mismatched against Greene for some of the night, who almost broke the game open. And even against the Tigers, he didn't dominate; he was lucky that Lynch missed a few easy goals. That's not to say he's not having a good season, but All Australian demands consistent excellence.
  4. Pretty funny that the reaction to this has been "Not enough Demons". I remember the days when even one Demon in a mock squad of 40 would get me excited! I've been following this column throughout the year and for what it's worth, I think the inclusions of Salem and Fritsch are a bit reactive based on their last 2 games. I'd also agree with their assessment that May is outside the team for the moment - he essentially missed 2 whole games with the injury and has had 1 or 2 quiet-ish games. Otherwise, it's hard to argue with the other selections. Let's see if we can keep this up...
  5. There was a stat going around a few weeks ago about Jones taking 298 games to finish a round in the top 2 of the ladder. He's still yet to finish 1st after a home and away round. Would be a cruel twist of fate if we finish this round in first position and he wasn't able to technically be part of it. It's a silly, meaningless record of course - one that Jones might not even be aware of - but it feels a little cruel nonetheless. Hope he gets named the medical sub and gets to be out there on the ground at the end of the day to celebrate the closest thing we've had to a premiership in about 20 years!
  6. Anything he can do in the forward line*, Fritsch can do better. Anything he can do in the back line*, Lever can do better. *Except of course take a speccy. I'll give him that.
  7. I just watched this highlights package which was in one of the threads Little Goffy posted and it's a joy to watch. I'm sure there are many other highlights packages on the internet but it's refreshing to watch this guy at his best. In his prime, he was not only our best inside player, but our best outside player as well (and for a while, he was our best leader, our best kick and one of our most reliable set shot for goal). Look at those booming handpasses, the classy sidesteps, and the one-step run-up drop punt goals. In the early-mid 2010s, Jones was doing this kind of stuff week in week out and he was a seriously underrated player because of the team he was playing in. One can only imagine what kind of player he would have been were he lining up in a half-decent team. We all know Jones doesn't have all the tricks that he used to, but what's just as important to remember is exactly how bad we were when Jones was at his best. Especially now that we're 5-0 and living in a momentary golden age (this is currently the best winning streak we've been in since 2000 if you include the 2 games at the end of 2020), it can be difficult to remember some of those awful weekends when getting thrashed by 100 points was the norm. Jones was there every week, trying his absolute guts out, and carrying the entire team on his shoulders. Thank god for Nathan Jones.
  8. Nice work. I might use this opportunity to show off my AFL Fantasy name this season: "Daw to Daw Salemsman", which had the edge over "UnbeLeverball", "Pickett Pocket", "Next Daw May-bours", "Gawn without a Trac", "Kickin' Brown the Daw", "Hunting and Traccing Sparrows" and "Hunt for the Weidepeople". It was a long night I spent working on these...
  9. Right now, we have about 7 players who would be in the conversation (plus Hibberd, of course, who didn't need the first few rounds of the season for his last AA jersey!), which says something about the evenness of our team this year: May and Lever down back would both be in the frame (although I'd say both are currently on the cusp); Langdon would be a lock for the wing if the selectors truly valued that role; Kozzie is looking very dangerous up forward and would have to be a chance for the FP; Gawn has been superb in his most recent 6 quarters but has probably done enough; and Oliver and Petracca have both started very well. Don't overlook Petracca just yet - he's got a high benchmark and is not playing 100% there at the moment but is currently posting career best stats (28 touches, 6 marks, 3 tackles and a goal a game). If he nailed a few more of his in-play shots on goal, we'd be talking about him and the Brownlow already.
  10. How about this for a stat, ay? (we're the ones in blue) Sure, we sprayed it a bit but we had 39 shots on goal tonight. I'd far prefer we get it inside 50 for a dodgy shot on goal than have the opposition's loose man rack up 10 uncontested marks against us. Turn those shots into goals and we can start erecting an Yze statue at the G...
  11. We had two guys on the wing so Petracca had to sprint back to the back line to make up numbers. We were fortunately only to get a warning because earlier on in the game, we only had 3 players in the centre square before Fritsch did some counting and sprinted in there for perhaps the only CBA of his career. Oh, to be back at the ground and to notice these details!
  12. That piece of play from him was exhilarating! Pity he gave away a free kick, a 50 and missed the goal. But it offered a glimpse of his game changer potential, even if it'll ultimately go down as a clanger.
  13. If it's anything like The Test (the doco made following the Australian cricket team), it'll definitely be worth watching. And with the richest man in the world in charge of Amazon, you don't need to feel too guilty using a free first month subscription on it.
  14. Well done to the Demonland team on getting Jason Taylor on the podcast - was great to get a few additional insights into the draftees. Something I found interesting was that although all three of the draftees have wing potential, it sounds like Rosman is the only one specifically being trained to play that area. This makes sense, as there's only one available spot (Langdon is obviously a shoe-in for one of the wings and plays that spot close to 100% of the time). However, combined with the comments from Mahoney in the pre-season, it sounds like we have a lot of players in the mix for one available spot. According to this article, Baker, Harmes, Hunt and Tomlinson are in the running. And according to the Jason Taylor interview, Nietzsche and Rosman are also training in that area. I've also heard comments about McDonald being a possibility for the wing. Is it just me, or does that sound like a lot of players being trained for the one position on the ground? Obviously some of those players have lots of versatility (Hunt forward, Tomlinson in defence) but my read is that the club is still pretty unsure who we want to play on that 2nd wing.
  15. I really appreciate the club for doing this. Even though Zoom isn't an ideal platform for something like this, it was good of the club to stick to their word and run this again for members after starting it last year. Credit probably goes to Pert. A few critical observations: Absolutely no mention of Josh Mahoney. That probably isn't too surprising given the news this week but he didn't even get an acknowledgment from the team for over a decade of service. Read into that what you like. On that note, there was no presentation from the football department (Alan Richardson answered a few questions but didn't present a football-specific review). This was handled by Mahoney last year and my assumption is that Pert and Lamb took on most of this in their spiels. But what it meant was that we didn't get too many specifics from someone close to the football side of things about what went right and wrong this year. I mean, Goodwin spoke, but he speaks in such shallow platitudes and cliches that he gives supporters very little insight. In last year's presentation, I thought Mahoney was very candid about where we are at and what went wrong. In his absence, I was hoping Richardson might be the new person to provide some of those football-specific insights that are too low-level for Pert and Bartlett and too intellectual for Goodwin. As for Goodwin, I wish he knew how to give an example! A question was asked during the Q&A about what being ruthless meant to him and he gave a 1 mark answer to a 5 mark question (as a teacher, this is the best analogy I can come up with). He gave a vague definition of what ruthlessness was, but couldn't name a specific example of what that actually tangibly means for the players or coaches. I've always assumed he keeps things close to his chest to not be too revealing, but the more I listen to him I get the sense that he's actually a pretty poor communicator who tries too hard to say the right thing rather than saying anything useful. (And this is coming from someone who likes him) I can only hope there's a different side of him that's specific and clear when talking to the players about his game plan. Pert responded to a question about Melbourne's BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). He outlined his vision for the club, but he seemed more enthused about building the membership base to 75,000 (which he mentioned about 3 times) than winning a premiership (which he mentioned once, but it was contextualised by "if we are making the finals consistently"). I wish the leaders at the club were more explicit about the fact that we want to win a premiership and that is our core goal as an organisation. Even if that's not what Pert's KPI is, I want him to believe that he can and will win a flag and for him to be bold about it. Ditto Bartlett, Goodwin, etc. As long suffering fans, we know that winning a premiership is hard work and probably not going to come for another 100 years. But for God's sake, give us some hope that that's at least what we're aiming for! (And not just because it's in a strategic plan, but because it's a driving force behind the football club and its culture)
  16. I like this call, especially in light of the decision to get rid of Omac, not chase Phillips harder, and trade Preuss. I agree that he probably won't play many games but if any of our key position players go down he's the kind of backup you want on your list. I'm happy for him to be our Cam Pedersen, who pops in for a 2 goal cameo at some point and apply pressure on the senior team.
  17. The Demons website no longer differentiates between rookies and the senior list, but from my back-on-the-envelope calculations: We had 45 on our list this season and have lost 6 players - Bennell - Preuss - Hannan - Wagner - Wagner - Dunkley That leaves us with 39. If we use 44 list spots, then we can take 5 selections at the draft (or 4 + 1 rookie/supplementary selection) + Pick 18 + Pick 19 + Pick 28 + Pick 50 + Pick 89 I have no idea whether we'll use all 44 list spots (salary cap might be an issue), but if that's our plan then I guess Mahoney has to decide whether each of Omac/Chandler/Bedford/Bradtke/Nietschke/Jordon/Brown are more valuable to us than pick 89/a rookie pick. If I were him, I wouldn't be making any more delistings but there's also a high likelihood this draft will be full of smokeys and maybe Jason Taylor has some up his sleeve.
  18. When I saw the deal, I was initially surprised that we had given it up, but what we've seen time and time again is that Josh Mahoney knows how to get us into the first round if that's what he thinks we need. Hypothetically, he could keep trading our future 1st every trade period to improve our draft position for the present year. I think it also shows that he really rates our list and would rather invest in our 2021 season than waiting another year for improvement. We saw this year how much top end talent can make an impact (not just with Jackson, Pickett and Rivers but with Rowell, Anderson, Serong, etc. elsewhere) so I think it's the right call. Finishing 9th this year also probably gives us a bit more confidence about our 2021 first draft pick falling after pick 10 and I like the club's optimism.
  19. If you google "afl simpsons jerseys" there are a few dodgy-looking websites that are selling them online (clearly unauthorised though). Up to you whether you trust them enough to hand over your credit card details.
  20. Courtesy of https://www.reddit.com/r/AFL/comments/fv6cyh/aflxsimpsons_mash_up_ive_put_together_while/
  21. Can someone clarify the rules around this? A brief Google search hasn't given me any clear rules on how trading future late picks affects future early picks (I was hoping there would be an explainer piece on afl.com.au) but it does sounds vaguely familiar. You'd have to assume Mahoney is fully across the rules but it obviously does tie our hands a bit if a great trade opportunity presented itself over the next week. I trust him that he's got something up his sleeve with this one but it does at present look like a strange deal to do so early in the trade period.
  22. I suspect you are right. If that happens, though, you'd hope that things like match highlights and post-match press conferences still remain accessible for all fans without a fee.
  23. Pretty disappointing so far. Looks like they're just moving all their existing video content onto a new website. Mind you, AFL Media does make some pretty good content (I think back to the 'Don't Believe in Never' films they made last year), but here's hoping they don't chuck all of it behind a paywall.
  24. Here's my predicted top 10. Gawn would have been higher but missing games really costs you in Melbourne's B+F system 1. Petracca 2. May 3. Oliver 4. Gawn 5. Langdon 6. Viney 7. Salem 8. Lever 9. Hibberd 10. Fritsch
  25. As tempting as it is to compile a whole list of delistings, I don't think we need to be making the wholesale changes that North Melbourne have gone for. Smaller list sizes will certainly impact on how many we cut, but this is a terrible year to be making significant cuts. We have a poor draft/trade hand and this year's draft will be severely compromised through both academy selections and COVID ruining many seasons for young prospects (and VFL players). I expect the two Wagners and KK to get cut and I won't be surprised if Preuss or Tmac gets traded, but I suspect we'll be keeping Omac, Brown, and Smith, who I'm sure many will inevitably call to be sacked. They may not be world beaters, but it's far more valuable to have those players on the list as depth rather than a bunch of speculative 18-year-olds that have barely played competitive footy in 12 months. As for guys like ANB, Vanders and Spargo - I'm pretty confident they'll be on the list next year. The lack of VFL means it's hard to get a read on some of the youngsters like Dunkley, Chandler and Bradkte but I wouldn't be rushing to cut any of them unless they're genuinely showing nothing. In my eyes, Dunkley is still a first year player who we were lucky enough to pluck earlier than the rest. I think they promised Nietschke another year when he got his injury, and Jordon seemed to be coming along well before the late injury so I think they're both safe. Bedford could be a really interesting one. Getting dropped after both of his games isn't a good sign, but he did a few things in both games and we still haven't found the right forward balance. Jones and Jetta also loom as interesting ones. Jetta has another year on his contract but you would suspect retirement would be option. Jones has been debated elsewhere in great detail and there's probably pros and cons keeping him on regardless of the milestone figure. Bennell is anyone's guess. I hope we keep him, but it's a bit hard to say after everything that's just happened today. While some may disagree, I think we were a bit too aggressive with list changes after 2018 (another fairly injury-free year) with Pedersen, Bugg, Kent, Vince all going at once. When injuries hit us hard in 2019, our depth was shot and we were uncompetitive. I hope the footy department are a bit wiser this time around.
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